The Speed of Sound - A Cornucopia: Bounty
Manchester indie rock / power pop outfit The Speed Of Sound presents their new album 'A Cornucupia: Bounty' - the final instalment of the album trilogy 'A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty', released via Big Stir Records. They also share the video for 'Jaunt', the b-side to their danceable anti-AI single 'Artificial Paradise'. Vigorous and stompingly crunchy, 'Jaunt' is a recklessly and incautiously fast garage-punker, sporting a mutated blues pattern and an added horn section.
Formed in 1989 with a pre-history dating back to the day Andy Warhol died in 1987, the band is now made up of father and son John Armstrong (guitars and vocals) and Henry Armstrong (keyboards), Ann-Marie Crowley (vocals and guitar), Kevin Roache (bass guitar) and John Broadhurst (drums).
"Falling into the rock-and-roll genre of 'Instructional Dance Song', it features the added 'twist' of celebrating and encouraging the next step in human evolution from homosapien. As David Bowie said in 'Oh You Pretty Things', "Gotta make way for the homo-superior" - evolve and gain the added benefit of telepathic and teleporting powers. Referencing the 70’s TV program "Tomorrow People", where the actors' abilities lie dormant until their teenage years, when they painfully and confusingly 'break out’ from their sapien form and find their true selves," says John Armstrong.
Full of ambition, energy and melodic brilliance, the 'A Cornucopia' deluxe edition is available on vinyl and CD. On 'Minerva', The Speed of Sound shared a rich bouquet of thought-provoking compositions, including the hauntingly spacious 'Trickledown', the stratospherically vast 'The Great Acceleration', and the uplifting 'Mind Palace' and 'West Wind'.
'Victory' brings 14 fresh shape-shifting grooves, from the danceable 'Underground', the unabashed sensuality of 'Monsoon', gothic lounge jazz of 'Permafrost', the glam-rocking 'E to F', reckless garage punk punch of 'Go For It', post-nostalgia of 'The Same River' and shimmering elegance of 'Tranquility Falls' to the strangely linked pairing of 'Apocalypse Acropolis' and 'Apocalypse Metropolis'
Always been idiosyncratic and counter-intuitive, in search of something new, The Speed of Sound creates music with lyrical bite, expanding their foundation of 1960s, punk and new wave influences, their dynamic and stylistic variation crossing borders and pushing boundaries at every opportunity.
Following 2021's critically acclaimed album 'Museum Of Tomorrow', the band returns triumphant, defiant and redemptive with this trilogy, marking their 35th anniversary. Most music is never even recorded, and most recorded music remains unheard. 'Victory' is a celebration of this unheard underground music and the counterculture itself - music made for the pleasure of making it.
'Bounty' is out now and available everywhere, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp, where the full trilogy 'A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty' can be obtained on CD or vinyl.
